Hearthstone 'The Grand Tournament' Expansion Announced

During a live event today, Blizzard announced the next expansion, The Grand Tournament, is coming to Hearthstone: Heroes of WarCraft. The expansion will include 132 new cards.

Game design manager Eric Dodds took to the stage to make the announcement, describing the expansion as being about "epic characters doing battle on epic steeds."

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New cards were shown off during the presentation, as well as the announcement of a new mechanic that focuses on the heroes. There will be a "ton of new hero power cards," Dodds said. One such card is the Maiden of the Lake, a card that reduces hero power cost to 1. The expansion also introduces a new keyword, "Inspire." Inspire minions have powers that activate every time you use your hero power.

Hearthstone Grand Tournament Cards

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Hearthstone Grand Tournament Cards

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The story is based around Warcraft's Argent Tournament. Invitations were sent out to "mighty warriors" to participate in the tournament, but Dodds said "something happened they weren't necessarily expecting." Among the knights and warriors that show up to the tournament, Murlocs, Clockwork Knights, and Pirates also appeared.

"We took a very serious part of lore and made it slightly less serious," Dodds joked.

Pure Hearthstone flavor.

Fans can pre-purchase the new packs beginning next week and the expansion will be playable "next month," according to Dodds. The pre-purchase deal is for 50 packs for USD $50 (AUD $64.99). Pre-purchasing the cards will unlock a special card back.

The last major expansion to Hearthstone was Goblins vs. Gnomes, which introduced 120+ cards to the game, with a focus on the Mech minion type, and a number of new mechanics, such as Spare Parts. Hearthstone has also had two PVE expansions, Curse of Naxxramas and Blackrock Mountain, both of which introduced 30 new cards.